Page 39 • Audiophiles unite • Non-Gaming • Music • Eurogamer.net

Drakesmoke 16 Feb 2021 11:52:41 896 posts
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I'm already there with the masterings and stuff TBH, and yes I have a Discogs account and have spent a fortune there.

CDs are a combo of wallpaper and (very occasionally these days!) for the car, but their primary function is to be ripped to an ipod. Yes I still use a humble Ipod touch for semi casual listening.

My car is ancient and doesn't have any form of streaming built in. I find I can REALLY get to know an album on a commute, in an almost Clockwork Orange way.

I can't fully emotionally connect to an album unless I own it (weird I know) , so Spotify is really for research or full casual listening (e.g. 'remember this one?') In the 'research' sense, it's a brilliant tool, but I never 'take in' the music that way, and it just leads to purchasing.

I also find streaming completely not conducive to listening to an album in its entirety. And I believe in The Album as an art form.

I'm 37 now and find myself at odds with my peers with this stuff, but I think the difference is my dad spotted a latent interest and got involved, so I was listening to his stuff either on vinyl or by taping it to walk to school with, so I have both old tastes in music itself and how to consume it long form I think.

Most people just use music as a background noise I think.

It's also about supporting art and the artist the collection element, streaming does not do that at all.

nickthegun 16 Feb 2021 12:01:05 87,711 posts
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I know what you mean. The days of knowing an album inside out are on the way out and I did like getting to know music really intimately.

The flipside of that is that, according to my Spotify wrapped, I listened to music from 1021 artists last year, stuff I would never have found or probably even paid for otherwise, so at least those guys got *something* (as little as it is).

Edited by nickthegun at 12:04:47 16-02-2021

UncleLou Moderator 16 Feb 2021 12:46:11 40,723 posts
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Drakesmoke wrote:

I can't fully emotionally connect to an album unless I own it (weird I know) , so Spotify is really for research or full casual listening (e.g. 'remember this one?') In the 'research' sense, it's a brilliant tool, but I never 'take in' the music that way, and it just leads to purchasing.

I also find streaming completely not conducive to listening to an album in its entirety. And I believe in The Album as an art form.

Completely with you regarding the emotional connection and the "album as an art form", and also agree with nick how streaming broadens the listening habits.

Anyway, I don't have record player currently, but planning to get a Technics Sl-1500C in the next few months just so I have a justification to buy albums again! Streaming to find the best stuff, buy the BEST OF THE BEST albums on vinyl, is the idea.

Edited by UncleLou at 12:47:13 16-02-2021

Armoured_Bear 16 Feb 2021 13:00:39 31,233 posts
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You-can-call-me-kal wrote:

Drakesmoke wrote:
Basically the thing I seem to be learning is that vinyl is just this big precarious balancing act and doing one thing can negatively affect the other thing. I might just stick with CDs!
Yes, but that’s kind of the fun part as well.

The deepest rabbit hole with this is the vinyl itself. Before you know it you’ll be researching which master and pressing of which particular record is best and spending a fortune on Discogs.

I love that shit.

Armoured_Bear 16 Feb 2021 13:03:50 31,233 posts
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You-can-call-me-kal wrote:
Anyone use Roon? I’m sure I’ve seen someone here talk about it.

It feels like huge expense to do a bunch of stuff I can essentially already do with a NAS and a streaming service, but people do seem to go nuts for it.

I've been using it, biggest strength to me is a lovely UI with fantastic providing of metadata and seamless integration of streaming and personal libraries. Works great but the buy forever price is just too fucking much. 200 fine but $700 is obscene IMO.

Drakesmoke 16 Feb 2021 13:05:22 896 posts
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@UncleLou good intentions with the 'best of the best', but there's a famous quote about the best laid plans of mice and men here

You'll be a crackhead in no time.

Thankfully my partner is an enabler. As an example of this, I've just been OK'd to buy six Who LPs at a cost of £106, on the justification that it's the equivalent of the ticket price for their canceled show (am yet to be refunded crying laughing emoji).

One thing I do find with the collecting aspect of the hobby is that scarcity pushes me to buy even when I shouldn't, like at the end of a pay period. Nothing worse than spotting that stock levels on something in your wish list are low, and all sellers uniformly sticking a tenner on it to push you. You'll also find that stuff that logically should be widely available isn't. This goes for CDs these days too.

Armoured_Bear 16 Feb 2021 13:06:56 31,233 posts
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This is the record cleaner I mentioned which is quite cheap and does a decent job. I used one for years before I got an Okki Nokki.

Edit: Seems to be the same or very similar to what Kalel mentioned (Knosti).

mrharvest 16 Feb 2021 13:30:35 5,718 posts
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Drakesmoke wrote:
CDs are a combo of wallpaper and (very occasionally these days!) for the car, but their primary function is to be ripped to an ipod. Yes I still use a humble Ipod touch for semi casual listening.

The early iPods had pretty decent DACs, actually. I remember this funny demo from back in the day.

Drakesmoke 16 Feb 2021 13:35:28 896 posts
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@Armoured_Bear

Cheers. I have looked at this one myself. I'm going to see what kind of consistent results I can get from the smaller scale gear I've ordered for a bit, but this is a thought.

It's one of those where you go through the forums and for every person saying it's great, another is saying it's caused micro abrasions or destroyed the fabric of space time though.

Drakesmoke 16 Feb 2021 13:39:54 896 posts
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@mrharvest I can't say with certainty because the ability to rip to higher bit rates became more standardized and presumably earphone tech improves but I immediately felt a sound improvement from my Touch as compared to my old Classic with the wheel.

There was something about the old ipod though, it was chunky and mirrored on the back. When you dragged your finger over the touch wheel and felt that little bit of resistance and the highlight clicked as it moved, you let out an involuntary Partridge-in-Tandy 'nice action'. In short they felt posh.

Edited by Drakesmoke at 13:42:25 16-02-2021

souvlaki 16 Feb 2021 14:00:16 1,191 posts
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I ditched all my CDs and vinyl ages ago and just have it all as flac now, streaming off my own server - don't use spotify, tidal etc.

The thing that annoys me is that most of my stuff has extra tracks that I don't want to listen to so queueing up albums is a faff of deleting tracks from the playlist and I'm too lazy to fix it / sort it out

You-can-call-me-kal 16 Feb 2021 14:10:20 23,013 posts
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Old iPods definitely had better DACs. There’s one model specifically which a lot of headphone audiophiles use.

I have an Astell&Kern portable player from before the Spotify days which I used to load up with FLACs and schlep about. These days it’s plugged directly into my headphone amp.

You-can-call-me-kal 20 Feb 2021 11:38:04 23,013 posts
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Found this really useful little content aggregator for audiophile stuff.

https://www.dailyaudiophile.com/

nickthegun 20 Feb 2021 11:56:32 87,711 posts
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You-can-call-me-kal wrote:
Old iPods definitely had better DACs. There’s one model specifically which a lot of headphone audiophiles use.

I have an Astell&Kern portable player from before the Spotify days which I used to load up with FLACs and schlep about. These days it’s plugged directly into my headphone amp.

I used to have one of these hooked up when I had an amp.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Karma

Cool little thing. Supported ogg and flac and the dock has a phono out so you could still use the player portably.

Got it in a fire sale when everyone admitted defeat to the iPod and I think it goes for decent money on eBay now.

You-can-call-me-kal 20 Feb 2021 12:00:08 23,013 posts
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I remember those well. There was a Cowon thing as well that was very popular. And something by Creative.

nickthegun 20 Feb 2021 12:30:36 87,711 posts
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It never quite got the love it deserved. I dunno if I had a bad drive or the HDD impact isolation was inherently bad in these but it skipped like hell when I walked anywhere so I did swap to an iPod relatively quickly and it ended up just welded to my amp.

Again, maybe sucking eggs, but there's an interesting YouTube channel called dankpods where an excitable Australian collects old iPods and MP3 players from the 'maybe we can beat apple' era.

Technoishmatt 20 Feb 2021 13:10:14 5,365 posts
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Since Spotify, I listen to way more albums than I used to when I bought CDs. I almost exclusively listen to full albums. Except a few artists annoyingly just release singles when they are ready! But even then they might add an artist curated playlist with all the tracks in it. Actually given more options for music as an art form, as they are sometimes interesting series.

And with Spotify I can instantly listen to the whole album whether on my phone/headphones, in my office on my Kef speaker system, in living room on Sonos beam, on the echo show in the kitchen, or in the car.

Deleted user 20 February 2021 15:11:19

After the talk above about CD players and NAS drives, I've been looking into writing my CDs digitally. Can anyone think of a problem with this proposed set up?

New Mac mini running Roon (connected via ethernet cable using the powerline home plug things).

Ripping CDs to external USB SSD using disc drive, using dbpoweramp software and the Apple USB disc drive to save files direct onto the external SSD.

Chord Mojo USB DAC attached to Mac to listen to music direct using headphones.

A network player (e.g. Cambridge Audio CXN V2) downstairs connected to integrated amp and connected either by WiFi or home plugs again.

An iPad to control Room, which should work from either the Mac or network player.

Does that sound sensible? The Mac mini could be connected to a monitor some of the time, but I'm planning on using it as a server most of the time. I'd occasionally use it for other things though. I'm not 100% sold on the Room idea yet, I might end up using a different app to control the music, although from what Ive googled Roon is by far the best when controlling multiple devices

I was initially looking at some kind of all in one system to do this, but I just know it'll end up being obsolete in a few years and probably cost far more money than the above system.

Deleted user 20 February 2021 15:13:35

I want something that works fast and reliably and makes browsing and playing music in multiple locations a breeze. It doesn't need to do anything clever (e.g. surround sound or multi room).

Main reason for it is to get rid of my CD collection whilst keeping the high sound quality of CDs Vs something like Spotify.

The Mac mini would be in my office so would need to be pretty quiet and low power consumption, but doesn't have to be totally silent.

Edited by andytheadequate at 15:15:00 20-02-2021

You-can-call-me-kal 20 Feb 2021 15:19:36 23,013 posts
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Sounds like a pretty normal Roon set up. Again I don’t use it so can’t comment in detail.

Deleted user 20 February 2021 18:31:09

@You-can-call-me-kal do you listen to any music on a NAS (or equivalent)? If so, what app do you use to control it? I like the idea of Roon but it's pretty expensive.

From a quick(long) Google, Audirvana looks like it might work, and far cheaper than Roon.

Edited by andytheadequate at 22:03:21 20-02-2021

You-can-call-me-kal 21 Feb 2021 08:53:27 23,013 posts
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I have all my used on a flash which plugs directly into my Naim amp/streamer, which then gets picked up as a remote server by other devices on my network. I use the Naim amp to control music on the Naim. Then the UI from my A&K to reach the Naim, or whatever I’m using.

Strongly suspect that Cambridge will work the same way.

fontgeeksogood 21 Feb 2021 09:33:37 12,913 posts
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Have you tried the oxygen free cat5 cable

You-can-call-me-kal 21 Feb 2021 09:44:20 23,013 posts
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You joke, but I did actually solve my hum problem from a few pages back with an expensive cable.

Fake_Blood 21 Feb 2021 13:18:07 11,093 posts
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All this vinyl stuff is for amateurs, 15 ips master tapes is where it’s at.

You-can-call-me-kal 21 Feb 2021 13:32:21 23,013 posts
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I would love a reel to reel.

Armoured_Bear 21 Feb 2021 13:44:51 31,233 posts
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Fake_Blood wrote:
All this vinyl stuff is for amateurs, 15 ips master tapes is where it’s at.

I met a German reel to reel dude once who would record vinyl onto reel to reel and play it as it sounded "better"....

souvlaki 21 Feb 2021 13:57:21 1,191 posts
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Isn't that like all the vinyl flac rips?

Armoured_Bear 21 Feb 2021 14:00:56 31,233 posts
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souvlaki wrote:
Isn't that like all the vinyl flac rips?

This guy said it sounded better than on vinyl whereas the FLAC rips are aiming to have a practical version of music that has often been mastered differently, with less compression.

mrharvest 21 Feb 2021 16:40:29 5,718 posts
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Armoured_Bear wrote:

Fake_Blood wrote:
All this vinyl stuff is for amateurs, 15 ips master tapes is where it’s at.
I met a German reel to reel dude once who would record vinyl onto reel to reel and play it as it sounded "better"....

The thing is it might sound better. Not more accurate but warmer and more musical. I've used tape for drum and bass mixing. Gives it a nice saturation and definitely makes them sound better.

Audiophiles unite • Page 39